Introducing Oats to your tiny tots

Oats is a grain which is very nutritious and tasty in nature. It is a good source of vitamins, minerals, fiber, antioxidants, iron, protein etc.

Milk oats was one of my baby's early food and my baby has always liked it with added fruits (banana and mango particularly). In fact, not just my son, now our whole family eats it this way i.e. with fruits in place of sugar. 

I knew very little about oats when I introduced it to my son but later I got to know a lot about it. Hence I decided to write a post on this. 

which one is good for your little one
oats recipes

Oats are available in 3 varieties in market that differ in terms of their cooking time, processing etc.

• Steel cut oats: These are whole oats cut into 2-4 pieces with steel blades. These are least processed. It takes long time to cook (30-40 min). 

Figure 1: steel-cut oats

• old-fashioned (rolled oats):  These are lightly processed and takes lesser time to cook as compared to steel cut oats. Steel cut oats are steamed and pressed into flakes to make rolled oats.  It takes ~10-15min to cook them.

Figure 2: Rolled oats

• Quick oats (instant oats) : These are highly processed and gets cooked easily that's how they got their name. It usually takes ~5 min to cook it. 

Figure 3: Instant oats

Which one is good for your child?

Although steel cut oats are least processed but they can be heavy for your little one's digestive system. Best is to offer rolled oats to your child as they are not much processed and can be digested easily. Avoid giving instant oats as they are highly processed and some of quick oats available in market contain salt which is not good for babies.

Oats recipes

1. Overnight oats : This is one of the easiest oats recipe that I have come across recently. 

• Take a glass jar and add 1 cup of rolled oats along with 2 cups of milk and 1 teaspoon of chia seeds.
• You can add sugar/jaggery powder for sweetness as per your taste. I don’t add sugar, instead add fruits while serving. 
• Keep it in refrigerator for whole night. 
• In the morning your dish is ready. 
• You can keep it outside refrigerator in the morning for half an hour or so before serving. 
• Add  fruits and nuts of your choice while serving. 

2.  Fruits Oats cooked in water and milk : This is our all time favorite.

• Cook 1 bowl of rolled oats in 2-2.5 bowl of water until the water is dried.
• Add 1 cup boiled milk and add sugar/jaggery powder (this is optional, you can add fruits for sweetness while serving)
• After few minutes, your dish is ready. 
• Add fruits (banana, mango etc.) while serving

3. oats cheela : you can grind oats in mixer for oats powder or you can directly buy oats atta. 

• Mix oats powder and wheat atta/besan in 1:1 ratio
• Add vegetables of your choice (tomato, onion, capsicum, beans, carrot etc.)
• Add spices of your choice (ajwain, hing, black pepper, jeera etc.)
• Add water to make a smooth paste. It should neither be too runny nor be too sticky. It should be such that you can easily spread it on tawa. I use non stick tawa as it is easy to make cheelas on it. 
• Spread it in round shape on tawa with the help of ladle (kadchi) 
• flip it when one side is cooked.
• when both sides are cooked, your dish is ready. serve it with any vegetable, curry or curd.

A quick advice 

• don't make very thin cheelas for kids. It should be little thick and soft so that they can easily chew it.  

• if  you find it difficult to spread, it means batter is sticky and you need to add little more water.

4. Masala oats/ oats upma : This is normal tadka recipe. you can customize as per your taste.

• In pan, add 1 tbsp of desi ghee or any oil that you use. 
• Add jeera in it. 
• After a couple of min, add garlic and ginger. 
• When it is sautéed, add onion and let it sauté. 
• Add tomato and let it also get sautéed. It will take 7-10 min to make proper masala. 
• Now add vegetables of your choice (peas, capsicum, bell pepper, beans etc.)
• Sauté it for couple of minutes. 
• Add salt (recommended only if your child is 1+ year old). 
• Add a cup of oats and add 2-3 cups of water. 
• Let it cook. When water is completely eliminated, your dish is ready. 
• You can serve it with curd. 

5. Oats cookies : click here to check oats peanut butter cookies recipe

Related Posts

• Just Parented: Eggplant Pizza
• Just Parented: Home-made oats cookies for kids
• Just Parented: How to make foxnuts (makhana) powder
• Just Parented: Food choices for your child

How to deal with hiccups(hichki) in infants

Hiccups(hichki) in new born are very common and it is normal too. It is not  as uncomfortable for babies as it is for adults. Infact some age old myth says that hiccups in babies is a good sign. It increases their hunger. 

Hiccups is a natural phenomenon, it needs no extra attention and  most of the time it will settle by its own in sometime. 

For babies younger than 6 months, breastfeeding is the best and easiest way to get rid of hiccups. It gets settled in a couple of minutes with it. Infact this technique has always worked for me without a single time failure. But even it doesn't settle , don't worry. As said above, it has no harm to your baby. 

If baby is older than 6 months, you can also offer few sips of water. Please don't offer water to baby younger than six months. Ideally water should be started when you start solids. Check post introduction to solids for more info. 

If baby's age is more than 1 year old, you can try most of the home remedies that you do with adults e.g. taking few sips of water, eating sugar or honey etc. Please don't try anything extreme. (Don't use any harsh method. Be gentle.  baby's safety and comfort should always be taken into consideration)

Home-made oats cookies for kids

Stopping your children from eating unhealthy is a challenging task. Refusal is not always an option; in fact, I believe too much restrictions can cause anxiety in kids. Biscuits are one of the unhealthy food which is found in almost every home. Most of the biscuits available in market have refined flour (maida), too much refined sugar and many preservatives in it which is not good for their health.

Hence I decided to cook biscuits at home for my son. This recipe is super easy that requires no baking. In fact, if You have all ingredients ready, it will take 7-10 min to prepare. 

Ingredients : 

1. Rolled Oats(60g)
2. Peanut butter(60g)
3. Honey or jaggery(1 tbsp)
4. Half tbsp desi ghee
5. 2-4 tbsp of cold  water

check this post for more oats recipes

Procedure: 

• Dry roast oats for few min.
• Grind it in grinder. This step is optional. I prefer to grind for fine texture
• Now mix it with peanut butter/desi ghee and honey/jaggery.

If your child is younger than 1 year, use of honey is not advisable. Hence in that case you can add jaggery powder, powdered sugar or no sugar at all. 

• Mix it well. 
• For binding add few tbsp of cold water. 
• Make small round balls of it and flatten it with your palm. 
• Refrigerate it overnight. 
• Biscuits are ready. 

Since these are not baked, it will not be crunchy. Its texture will be soft. My son loves it. Not just my son, I also eat it whenever I crave for sugar or biscuit. 

Do try this recipe and let us know in comment section. :-)